Sharjah Biennial 2025: Discover Bridging Cultures, Narratives, and inspiring Futures Under the Theme “to carry”
Experience the transformative Sharjah Biennial 2025, featuring over 140 artists and 80 new commissions. Explore the theme “to carry” through powerful artworks and inspiring stories, bridging cultures and histories across Sharjah. Don’t miss this global celebration of creativity and resilience.
The Sharjah Biennial is an important event in the current world of arts, and it is certain that its 16th event is going to take place from February 06 to June 15 in 2025. Hosted by the Sharjah Art Foundation, this important Middle Eastern event will have over 140 participants from around the world and more than 80 new commissions. The event will showcase several locations such as Sharjah City, Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid, Kalba, and Al Madam aimed at appreciating the commitment of the Emirate towards enhancing creativity and cultural exchanges.
The Sharjah Biennial 2025 has a theme that is very suggestive in nature, “to carry,” and is going to highlight history, migration, and resilience. This theme is one of the most anticipated ones for the year.
The Theme: “To Carry” as a Multivocal Exploration
The scope of this ‘carrying’ runs wider than any physical definition and instead seeks to question the emotional, historical, and cultural weight that societies and individuals possess. This question hinges on the Sharjah Biennial 2025 as a site of interrogative pilgrimage and discourse where the artist has the liberty to address various societies around the globe or within the communities.
Image courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation
The theme covers:
Migration and Displacement: This helps in understanding the psychological and physical impact that displaced individuals face due to lack of proper communication.
Intergenerational and Cultural Narratives: Artists will explore ways in which stories that have been passed on through generations continue to inform our understanding in this day and age.
Resistance and Survival: The Biennial draws out acts of survival and speaks of how people and communities survive with oppression and hardships while remaining part of the culture.
Another idea is that of ‘to carry’—that’ easily moves across various times—from lived pasts to envisioned futures. It makes people ask: Moving forward, what do we carry and what is it that we leave behind?
A Joint Approach to the Curatorial Strategy
The Principals of The Sharjah Biennial 2025 share the vision with five top curators of the contemporary art scene from all over the world: Natasha Ginwala, Amal Khalaf, Zeynep Öz, Alia Swastika, and Megan Tamati-Quennell. Their works come together to tell a story about their creative geographic regions and cultural identities.
These curators have emphasized methodologies that seem to focus on:
1. Residencies and Workshops: Having the most meaningful, long-lasting relationships with the artists and communities.
2. Collective Production: Allowing artists to directly engage in talking through co-created works.
3. Sonic and Literary Experiences: Providing non visual modes of art, such as sound, speech, and prose.
The team encourages and nurtures healthy critique and understanding by blending their individual curatorial methods. A statement by the curators brings out an important issue: “Our projects come under the umbrella of a question rather than a theme. What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors, and political formations with you?”
Highlights: Stellar Artists and New Commissions
The biennial includes an extraordinary array of voices that emerge from Asia, the Pacific Region, and Southeast Asia, as well as the Southern Hemisphere. This edition will also feature Indian artists whose works revolve around the themes of the Biennale, such as:
Pallavi Paul
Paul is a video artist and a film researcher, and her works operate on a determinant line between reality and fantasies. A poet and language expert, Paul’s art engages audiences in critical re-evaluation of the already constructed history and politics. After showcasing at the Contour Biennale and Tate Gallery, Paul will be one of the new artists appearing for the Sharjah Biennial 2025, a show that is highly anticipated.
Tishani Doshi
This poet, journalist, and dancer hails from Chennai and adds a literary touch to the Biennial. Her also award-winning books, Countries of the Body and A God at the Door, touch on questions of self, location, and humanity. Mixing visual elements with her poetry, Doshi intends to offer audiences a different narrative for her stories.
Sancintya Mohini Simpson
Belonging to a family of indentured laborers, Simpson’s work encompasses migration, memory, and trauma through the means of painting, video, and performance. Also reframing her maternal ancestry in the wider context of migration and resilience, her work seeks to create rituals and narratives that fill the gaps present in the colonial archives.
Also contributing to the display are artists Zi Chandralekha, Rajyashri Goody, and The Anga Art Collective, among others. Each artist will present works resonating with the theme, adding depth and variety to the exhibition.
The Role of Sharjah Art Foundation
The Sharjah Art Foundation has been and still is the guiding star behind the Biennial; it upholds the ideals of international contemporary art and protects the cultural treasures of the UAE. The Foundation was established in 2009 by Hoor Al Qasimi and has been the center of creativity ever since, promoting annual exhibitions, performances, screenings, and educational activities all through the year.
Some of the initiatives achieved by the foundation include:
• International March Meetings: This is an annual event that brings together artists and various professionals from across the globe. The aim is to cross-pollinate ideas and work together.
• Grants and Residences: Assisting artists, curators, and cultural practitioners from different parts of the globe.
• Gulf Region Traveling Exhibitions: Contemporary art from outside the Gulf Region is showcased with a view to reaching out to other parts of the world.
The Biennial restates the foundation’s efforts to integrate art from the local context with the world art scene, which defines Sharjah as the center for culture within the UAE.
The Importance of Sharjah to Culture
These representatives of the Emirate have a reputation for being able to operate out of a cultural center because of some historical and artistic achievement. Sharjah is home to about 20 museums, and in 1998 it was awarded the title of “Arab Capital of Culture” by UNESCO and “World Book Capital” in 2019. Sharjah’s geographical importance as a link between the Arabian Gulf and the Hirar Sea adds to the rich cultural aspect of the composition.
In a wider context, the Sharjah Biennial 2025 shows this commitment by presenting contemporary art from different parts of the world while respecting the local artists. The theme of the biennial, “To Carry,” makes this space a place where local and global politics can meet and converse.
The Sharjah Biennial 2025 is a celebration of the ability of art to transform people and societies. By focusing on the problem of carrying—of memories, histories, and dreams—it invites its audiences to consider their common humanity. This biennial is more than just an exhibition; it is a narrative and a community, a space for the arts to be played with and redefined.
Meanwhile, during the wait for the 16th edition, all indications are that it will be a momentous display of the variety and determination of the creativity of artists across the globe. All the Biennial asks is that we all walk away with its anthem of hope, celebratory spirit of oneness, and collective resurgence.
This is an opportunity to witness the immutable fusion of art and culture and a degree of closeness in Sharjah that you don’t want to miss. Get ready for February 6, 2025!
List of participants
1.Adam HajYahia*
2.Adelita Husni-Bey*
3.Akinbode Akinbiyi
4.Akira Ikezoe*
5.Akram Zaatari
6.Albert Refiti
7.Alia Farid*
8.Aluaiy Kaumakan
9.Ana Iti
10.Anga Art Collective*
11.Anuar Portugal, Bruno Ruiz, Joel Castro, Laura Muciño, and Sergio Torres
